No one seems to know just when the old house
was built, but there are distinct traces of Victorian gentility
in its brownstone front, its second-story entrance reached by a
flight of stone steps and its high ceilinged, narrow-windowed
formality.

If the building ever did possess gentility,
though, it was abruptly forsaken on February 14, 1929, as the
guttural yammering of submachine guns in a garage almost
directly across the street brought the notorious “St.
Valentine’s Day Massacre” to headlines around the world. Rumor
even has it that the house at 2121 North Clark served as a
lookout post for hoodlum henchmen of the Valentine gunners.

The succeeding years were unkind to the old
house, as it passed through a series of ever less savory
occupancies. Then, in November 1971, came the ultimate
indignity: fire. When the ashes cooled, all that remained was a
gutted shell of perhaps early glory.

Today, like the phoenix of myth, 2121 North
Clark Street has been reborn. Purchased in April 1972 by Chicago
attorney Albert H. Beaver, the old house has undergone a year
long process of receiving a facelift.

And what a facelift! When all the bills are
in, Beaver will have poured something like $150,000 into the
building. Pine paneling as much like the original as possible
has replaced timbers deeply charred by last winter’s fire. Under
the active craftsmanship of general contractor Charles R. Smital,
who specializes in restorations and remodeling of this sort,
Beaver’s law office now occupies the space where –according to
neighborhood legend – Al Capone’s under-world demons once peered
across Clark Street towards a bloody garage.

And on the ground floor has been built what
Beaver calls “Chicago’s most exciting restaurant concept in many
years”: THE CHICAGO PIZZA AND OVEN GRINDER COMPANY.